


The First Horseman

by Detachedfox



Series: The 'What You Don't See In Destiny' Series [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games), Destiny - Fandom, Destiny 2 - Fandom
Genre: Destiny, Destiny 2, Gen, Pre-Destiny 2: Forsaken DLC
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-04
Updated: 2019-07-31
Packaged: 2019-10-22 02:04:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 18,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17653949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Detachedfox/pseuds/Detachedfox
Summary: "I'm just a Titan who punches stuff for a living."Being alive for the best part of a century usually affords one wisdom and a sense of grace but for Adrich. . . well, it just gave him a list of things to do. Connect to all three paths of light. Punch one hundred Awokens in the face. Fight at the Twilight Gap. Simultaneously get Shaxx and Zavala to yell at you. Become one of the strongest Titans in your chosen subclass. Steal a Hunters' cloak without them noticing. It was a pretty long list and he'd ticked most of it off out of sheer boredom.But when The Drifter called in one last favour he owed, things started to get interesting. The task was simple. Take out the last remaining Archon of the House of Storms and bring The Drifter its head. Simple enough. His Fireteam was up for most of anything and could easily take out one measly Archon from an almost dead Fallen House. But when in the history of being a Guardian was anything ever that simple?It would become more complicated than the German Titan could ever know.|Second book in series||Story within Destiny and prequel story leading up to The Awoken Hunter|





	1. Epigraph

 

I don't know. Wasn't paying attention.

                  _\- Cayde-6_


	2. Introduction

"I'm just a Titan who punches stuff for a living."

 

Being alive for the best part of a century usually affords one wisdom and a sense of grace but for Adrich. . . well, it just gave him a list of things to do. Connect to all three paths of light. Punch one hundred Awokens in the face. Fight at the Twilight Gap. Simultaneously get Shaxx and Zavala to yell at you. Become one of the strongest Titans in your chosen subclass. Steal a Hunters' cloak without them noticing. It was a pretty long list and he'd ticked most of it off out of sheer boredom.

He'd done his duty to the city with his Sentinel brothers. He'd joined The Sunbreakers for the hell of it. He'd destroyed Hunters and Warlocks alike in the Crucible with his Arc fists. There wasn't much that he hadn't done. He'd even come face to face with Dredgen Yor at one point, one of the few things he wished he hadn't done. None of it was interesting anymore.

But when The Drifter called in one last favour he owed, things started to get interesting. The task was simple. Take out the last remaining Archon of the House of Storms and bring The Drifter its head. Simple enough. His Fireteam was up for most of anything and could easily take out one measly Archon from an almost dead Fallen House. But when in the history of being a Guardian was anything ever that simple?

It would become more complicated than the German Titan could ever know.


	3. Chapter 3

You know, I don’t really know much about the day I was born. I remember the blistering cold winds of the German mountain I’d crashed on. The fighter jet I woke up in. My Ghost screaming at me in a language I didn’t know. It was all pretty hazy.

I’ve been alive the best part of a century and in that time I’ve done most of everything a Titan could do. I’ve connected to all three paths of light even though I still don’t quite understand Void. I fought at the Twilight Gap and watched my best friends slaughtered around me whilst I fought on. I’ve even punched my fair share Reef Awoken in the face. Not that it’s much of an achievement. Just go in any Crucible match and you’ve got an almost endless supply of arrogant Awokens thinking they’re better than everyone else.

For some stupid Vanguard-Titan younger-Titans-getting-bored-and-spreading-rumours reason I’m classed as one of the strongest Striker Titans in the system just because I’ve been alive for a while. I just punch stuff with arc fists. It’s nothing special. Nothing new. Now creating a hammer or a sword out of Arc light would be something new but I haven’t so I never get what they’re going on about. Us Striker Titans usually have a decent amount of duty and responsibility to the Tower, not as much as the Sentinels, they’re all ‘Protect the City till your last dying breath!’ or ‘We are the Defenders of those who aren’t strong enough to defend themselves, we must be their shield!’. I’m nowhere near that level of weird honour but I’d be there with the other Strikers and Sentinels to protect the City when needed. Not like the Sunbreakers. Those bastards are the worst of us. The Sunbreakers and the Firebreak Order just give us a bad name. I ran with The Sunbreakers for a while but once my only friend in the damned order died on a mission they sent him out on, I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Anyway- if there was one thing I remember most about the day I was reborn, it would be the choice I made to be a Titan. Once Jaeger realised I was German and didn’t understand a shred of English and had switched his language mode he shoved a small screen in my face with three symbols on it, one for each class with an explanation behind each one. I shut down the remote thought of being a Hunter immediately. I’ve never liked the idea of capes and knives. I entertained the idea of being a Warlock for a good few minutes but my eyes kept drifting back to the Titan symbol and Jaeger’s explanation kept running through my mind. It didn’t have anything to do with protecting the other classes or that I would be the shield for them. It was just the idea of being the strongest class, of being able to shoulder charge near anything into anything.

I’ve never regretted the choice I made that day, though I’m sure the legions of Fallen and Cabal regret it.

“Hey.”

The black ghost with the Titan symbol emblazoned in gold interrupted the German’s thoughts. Adrich raised an unamused dark blonde eyebrow, “What?” He batted the Ghost to move away from his face.

“Did you forget that we’re raiding with the others in five?” _Jaeger_ rolled a little to the left, his accent as German as his Guardian.

The dirty blonde shook his head, leaning back on his hands. “Remind me why I agreed to that?” He was too tired to do anything.

_Jaeger_ shook his body. “Because your friend ‘The Drifter’ said he’d pay you for the Fallen Archon’s head if your fireteam took him out.”

“Fine.” He sighed just before he pushed himself to his feet, his large, scratched and dented to hell black armour clanking and rustling as he did so. His armour was so worn to the point that half of it was being held together with duct tape but all of the sharp, jagged edges and spikes sticking out of various pieces gave him that extra edge in most combat situations. “Then lets get this over with. I hate that guy.”

“So you keep saying.” _Jaeger_ let out a small laugh.

“Because I do.” Adrich nodded as he made his way to the main plaza of the Tower. “That Arschgeige is always roping us into the worst ideas. This is gonna be the last thing I do for him then I’m done.”

“Haven’t heard that before.”

“Hey.” He snapped his fingers towards the little light, “Watch it. I will put you back in your old shell.”

“Try it.” _Jaeger_ taunted, flying rings around his Guardian to see what the German would do.

Before Adrich had time to act on his threat, he was stopped by someone shouting his name, making him whip his head around to see who it was calling him and found it was Myth-5. The dark, multi-chrome coloured Exo with a gold, broken circle painted over his face waved him over, his gold eyes glowing brightly. For someone literally named Myth, he was way too energetic, especially for a Hunter.

“Myth, surprisingly energetic as ever.” He nodded slightly to the Hunter standing with their Fireteam by the Vaults.

“Wolf!” Ryan Blythe grinned, turning to greet his wild friend. “I see you didn’t even bother to comb your hair this time!” He pointed to the windswept tangled mess of a short mane reaching the nape of his neck.

The Leader of their Fireteam Adrich had appropriately named ‘We Know This Is A Bad Idea But We’re Doing It Anyway‘. The similarly German Titan was the second oldest and just third tallest of the group but was probably the most responsible out of the six of them. Similarly to his German brother, he wore large and heavy deep grey, almost black armour with the edges etched in a metallic orange, but far less dented and scratched, and just looked generally cleaner and taken care of. He looked a lot like the Striker Titan too, just the difference was that Ryan brushed his tied back, slightly lighter, blonde hair and kept it clean. That and whilst Adrich’s eyes were a striking blue, Ryan’s were a golden hue to go with his Sunbreaker subclass. It was pure coincidence that their eyes matched their branches of light but it was one people liked to make a point of.

Adrich ran a heavily gloved hand through his knitted hair, pushing the stray strands that’d fallen in front of his face back. “What would be the point? It’s just gonna get messed up anyway.” He shrugged.

The older Titan couldn’t argue with the truth. “Whatever.” He purposefully rolled his eyes. “Come on, let’s get this over with. I want to catch the latest Omen Raid attempt.”

“Good luck with that.” Amelie laughed, resting on her sniper rifle. “We never finish when we plan to.”

The French Sniper. One of the top ten female snipers at the tower, always falling short to the Russian Warlock Natasha Snowden. She was the shortest and youngest of the group by about ten or so years. Soft sky blue eyes, rich purple hair, lipstick and markings around the eyes and insides of eyebrows, and a pale complexion made her inadvertently disarming to those who didn’t know her. For a Warlock she was surprisingly resilient, never failing to carry out any order given to her. Sometimes they speculated that she was a Hunter in disguise but then they had to remind themselves that Hunters weren’t as selfless as she was.

Myth-5 nodded in agreement. “She’s not wrong.” He smirked when Ryan rolled his eyes again.

“We’re not that bad.” He looked between Adrich, Harri and Hephaestus-11 to back him up.

“We really are.” All three Titans collectively nodded.

Ryan threw his hands up in the air in defeat. “Fine! Just come on.” He grumpily stomped towards the railing, flexing out his left hand to summon Ghost.

Harri broke out laughing, holding his fist out to Hephaestus-11, “That will never get old!” He barely managed to say through his fit of laughter.

The youngest German and Titan. The second youngest of the group. Harri was basically their moral anchor. If it weren’t for the young Titan, each of them would’ve done things so unspeakable they would be worse than the Hive, the Fallen and the Cabal put together. They would’ve been exiled ages ago. It wasn’t that they would intentionally do bad things, none of them would, it was just they wouldn’t stop themselves from doing the bad things. Being one of the youngest gave him an innocence and moral code that hadn’t yet been broken. Deep blue hair, fairer skin than Amelie, icy blue eyes and a single scar above his left eyebrow. The physical embodiment of a Striker Titan if there ever was one.

Hephaestus chuckled a little and fist-bumped the smallest German. “It really won’t.”

The eldest of the Fireteam. The Sunbreaker who took his name from the God of the Forge. He was by far the oldest by a good hundred years or so. People speculated he was just younger than Shaxx and Zavala counting how many resets he’d been through. The exo himself was deep red with blazing orange eyes and what looked like fiery streaks of golden paint painted across his face. He was a hulking mass of an Exo at that. He and the Exos theorised he was built as a sort of tanky soldier built for conquering worlds and beating back the darkness with brute force. It was the best theory anyone had come up with so far. Though the Fireteam had few moral stopping points save for Harri, Hephaestus probably had the most morality to him, having seen the best and the worst of everything the centuries had afforded him. Though Frost was still a good moral compass even for him.

Adrich shook his head, a large grin plastered on his face as the Fireteam trailed behind the annoyed Leader. “Why he still considers us his brothers I will never know.” He readjusted the First Horseman, the Exotic solar Longsword he’d been given from his now-dead mentor, on his back so the long handle would stop poking him.

Six ships hovered just behind the railing and one by one, each member of the Fireteam disappeared in a sparkle of white blue lights. The ships hovered there for a moment before they individually pulled away, diving back a little before they shot into the endless skies.

Adrich just sat down in his seat before _Jaeger_ activated the warp drive to take them to Australia. He barely had time to think about anything when the comms button lit up.

“Reed checking in.”

“Myth-5 checking in.”

“Hephaestus-11 checking in.”

“Blythe checking in.”

“Frost checking in.”

“Wolf checking in.” He let each call happen before he called out himself. They never had a particular order of checking in but he usually waited until everyone else had their turn.

“Alright Wolf,” Ryan started from his position at the front of the arrow head formation. “What are we dealing with?”

Adrich cleared his throat a little, pulling up the small amount of detail given to him. “The Drifter wants us to take out the last remaining Archon of the House of Storms. The house was decimated a few months ago and the man’s been taking out the last straggling members but he couldn’t chase this one down. There’s maybe a hundred or so Fallen left with no Kell. They haven’t had time to make the Archon a Kell yet so he wants us to stop him before it happens and end the house once and for all.”

“ _Gott_.” Harri shook his head, “We’re basically executioners.”

“Pretty much.” Adrich forced himself to nod to no one in particular. “But I owe Drifter a favour and this was what he wanted me to do.”

“You could’ve refused.” Amelie chimed in.

“Put it this way,” Hephaestus came to the younger German’s rescue, “If we don’t take them out now then they’ll just recover and become a bigger threat down the road. We’re doing the City a favour taking out one more threat.”

“I guess.” The youngest German conceded with a small sigh. He didn’t want to be so merciless to an already crumbling house but he’d still go along with his team.

“Just don’t think too much into it.” Adrich offered Harri a comforting smile even though he knew the youngest Titan wouldn’t see it. “If we don’t kill them, they’ll kill us. Simple as that.”

“I know.”

 


	4. Chapter Two

 

“Oh my god! My skin feels like it’s on fire!” Myth-5 exclaimed, dramatically dropping to his knees. “Why does this country exist?!”

“You don’t have skin.” Amelie smacked the back of the Hunters’ head as she strolled past. “And millions of years of rapid movement of the tectonic plates caused the supercontinent Pangaea to split into several smaller continents.”

“But it’s sooo hot!” The Hunter whined.

Hephaestus-11 swiftly picked up the smaller Exo and slung him over his shoulder. “You forgot to switch your heat regulator on.” He jostled him a little bit.

“He is right.” Adrich nodded from under his Inmost Light helmet he’d managed to tweak so everything but the flames cracking out of the helmet was black to go with the rest of his armour. “It is really hot out even with the regulators.” The regulators did jack shit. He loved the freezing cold not the blistering heat that plagued their every move. What made it worse was that they weren’t even in the parts of Australia that were remotely temperate. They were slap bang in the middle of the god forsaken pile of dust and sand and death with a hot wind blowing the red earth at them.

Ryan laughed a little, shaking his head, “Are you sure it isn’t because of all of the duct tape holding your suit together?” He pointed to the black tape on the Germans’ left gauntlet basically keeping the two halves together.

“What? No.” Adrich rolled his head to make sure his older brother knew he was rolling his eyes. “We’re in a country that was designed to kill you in every debilitating way imaginable. I mean come on, even the ground is deadly.”

“How so?” Harri asked from his spot walking next to Hephaestus.

Amelie pulled out a small tablet, “The Australians before the collapse used to mine Uranium and Asbestos. Uranium was used in a multitude of nuclear weapons and powered nuclear power plants across the world. And Asbestos was used as a fire retardant for a short while but they quickly realised how deadly it was when it was broken apart.” She read off of the little information there was about the minerals and ores in the ground beneath them. 

In a flash Harri dove onto Ryan’s back, clinging to the oldest Germans’ neck for dear life. “And we’re still walking?!” His eyes were wide and glued to the ground in search of anything glowing.

Amelie shook her head, “The Ores are buried hundreds of feet below us. Even if there was a remote chance the radiation could leak to the surface through some crack, the light and our armour stops us from being affected. Radiation poison is the last thing we should worry about.” How was it even though she was younger than the German she was still more mature than him?

“What do we have to worry about then?” Harri peaked over the large pauldron.

“That.” Adrich pointed to the hollow mess of what used to be an Australian Airforce base. It was the only location within four hundred kilometres that the House could’ve possibly fled to.

“That?” Myth raised an eyebrow. It was so rundown and falling apart. It was hard to tell what it was supposed to be.

“Yeah.” The Striker Titan nodded, pulling out _Jaeger_ to confirm it was the location. “This used to be a semi-secret base and runway for the Australian Airforce. This was where they’d test their weapons and new jets before sending them to the Air bases along the coast.” They were just about to approach the end of the runway where true to _Jaegers’_ scanners were Fallen ships abandoned recently along the long stretch of tarmac.

“Alright.” Ryan nodded, detaching Harri from his back before he turned to the slowly baking team. “We don’t know what to expect but I can say that they’re panicking. They’ve been decimated by Guardians and now they’re trying to flee to another House in fear that more of us will come back. So be prepared for little to no predictability. Reed, you’ll be at back watching our backs. Myth, you’ll scout ahead and see what we’re up against. Wolf and Hephaestus, you two are running up front taking out the immediate threats whilst Frost and I lag behind a few feet. Standard tag team we’ve done a hundred times.” The eldest German instructed just as he had a hundred times before. By this point he really didn’t need to say who was running what position but it was somewhat cathartic to him to calm the nerves that always mounted at the start of every raid and strike.

Hephaestus not so graciously dumped Myth down next to him and rolled back his now free shoulder before he grabbed the shotgun strapped across his lower back. “This a raid or a strike?” He asked casually while he started to load it up.

Ryan glanced over to Adrich unclipping his Longsword and only got a shrug as an answer. “Raid, probably.” He hazarded an answer. It could honestly swing either way at any point.

Myth tried to wipe the red sand and dirt off of his cloak to little avail, “What are we going to call it then?” Maybe shaking the dirt off would work?

Ryan looked over to the Hunter with a raised eyebrow, “Is figuring out the name of this Raid really what we should be focusing on?”

Myth simply shrugged, “Someone has to figure it out if it’s gonna play on the Raid list tonight.”

Amelie shook her head, “And why would we want to record this?” She loved the Hunter like a brother. A younger, smaller, more annoying throw-him-at-the-nearest-Colossus brother.

“Wait, we aren’t?” Harri asked.

“No.” Ryan and Amelie answered simultaneously.

“Awww.” Myth whined, sinking a little bit to the ground. “That’s so not fair.”

Hephaestus pushed the smaller Exo’s knees straight with his boot, “What does it matter anyway? We’re not doing a job on orders from the Vanguard. The less people who know about this, the easier it will be. Right Wolf?”

Adrich nodded a little as he checked over his sword. The First Horseman. A sword forged by his dead mentor. It was a very simple design; a black leather bound handle, a short, dark metallic chrome hilt just big enough to protect his knuckles, a long and sleek straight blade with a single ingrain down the middle but with a small curve cut out on each side where hilt met sword sat a burning, jagged solar crystal on either side which fed into the ingrain and the razor sharp edge of the dark chrome metal. It remained largely unchanged from the time it’d found its way into his possession but the only change was the pommel. It was once a skull carved out of white marble with two rubies for eyes but now it was a wolf head carved out of polished black stone with the same rubies where the eyes would be. It was the only change he made. The sword was strong enough as it was. He could channel a bit of his light into the sword and if he was using either Striker or Sunbreaker then the sword would jump to life with lightning or flames. And if he used it as a shield, the more damage it absorbed the stronger the damage he would be able to dish out afterward. It was truly one of a kind.

_The armoured devil-may-care Titan walked into the large vault, past the five inch thick doors keeping the place secure and into the place housing weapons and the occasional armour piece of fallen Guardians. The walls were lined with weapon after weapon with lights shining down on each one from the ceiling whilst the floor he walked on was polished black marble, making it look a bit like he was walking on space. In the centre of the room was a singular table and on it was a cloth with what he presumed to be a sword under it. Behind the table stood the infamous Hunter Vanguard Cayde-6 w9th his hands clasped in front of him and a grave expression etched into his metal face._

_“Guten Morgen Cayde.” Adrich nodded to the Hunter._

_“Morning Wolf.” Cayde managed a small smile to greet the man who would very soon own the sword in front of him. “Thanks for coming.”_

_Adrich shrugged, “I couldn’t exactly ignore an order from the Vanguard ordering me to return to the Tower immediately.” And he’d just been in the middle of killing a Colossus._

_“Well it is important.” The Hunter tried to keep the air light._

_“So what did you want me for?” The Titan pushed, standing at the opposite end of the table. “One of the fallen Vaults isn’t exactly a place to meet.”_

_“No.” Cayde shook his head before he reached out and grasped the white cloth emblazoned with the Titan symbol in gold. “But it’s the right place to meet for this.” He gently yanked the fabric away to reveal the sword to the quickly horrified German._

_It was The First Horseman._

_Iduntis’ sword._

_What the hell was it doing in one of the Vaults reserved for the favoured weapons of fallen Guardians?_

_“His sword?” It could only mean one thing. He’d never seen the sword without his mentor. But now there was no mentor attached to it. He clenched his shaking hands and forced himself to harshly swallow before he opened his lips in an attempt to form words. “How? Was the only word that would leave his lips._

_“Four days ago. The report said he was on Mars with two other Guardians on a strike to take out a Colossus that’d escaped their grasp on Europa. They thought the Colossus wouldn’t be a threat but it was and it took out Iduntis in one blast. The only thing that survived was the sword.” Cayde tried to stay as mono-tonal as he could but even he was finding it difficult to stay calm. Iduntis was a good man. Was._

_“When will he be buried?” The German dug his gloved fingers into his palms to stop him from doing anything he’d regret. If they were anywhere else he’d punch a hole through the closest wall without a single thought but in the Vaults, well, it was a place even he respected. The weapons and cloaks strung up acted as a barrier that he just couldn’t break through no matter how much he wanted to._

_“Next Tuesday at sunset, per his request in one of the letters he left.” Cayde nodded to himself. Adrich’s eyes snapped up to the Hunter at the mention of the letters. “He left a few.” He continued on at the Titan’s silent request. “For his close friends. He did leave one for you.”_

_The Hunter pulled the white envelope out of one of the many concealed pockets and handed it over to the dirty blonde, “No one’s read it.” It probably did little good to assure the Titan but he couldn’t help but say it anyway._

_Adrich slowly took the envelope but when he did, he found it was surprisingly heavy, like there was more than one piece of paper in it. He thoroughly looked over the envelope to find a hint of anything and found nothing but his name written in neat cursive on the front. A sudden droplet of water splashing on to the white paper made him realise he was crying. He quickly took in a sharp breath, using one hand to wipe the tears from his eyes whilst the other tucked the envelope into the concealed pocket on his thigh. He moved his gaze back to the Exo, “Anything else?” It came out a lot weaker and softer than he had intended._

_Cayde paused for a moment before he shook his head. “No. He expressed that the sword was yours quite clearly but other than that.”_

_Adrich’s hand lightly grazed the leather bound handle just for a moment before he firmly grasped it and lifted the sword into the air. It was heavier than he remembered. Though he’d only held it once or twice, he oddly remembered the weight very clearly. Something within the sword sent a small jolt of electricity down his hand and in an instant the two crystals at the base of the sword changed to bright blue from its original blazing orange. Like the Borealis it’d changed element but he didn’t have to manually do so, the sword just did it by itself. “Never have been much of a sword guy.” He muttered, looking over the electrified blade for a moment before he clipped the sword to the clip on the back of his chest piece that was usually reserved for rocket launchers or shotguns._

_“See you Tuesday.” Cayde called out as the Titan started to walk off._

_“Yeah.” He nodded, keeping his eyes trained on the ground._

“Wolf.”

The Titan snapped his head up from his sword and looked around to see the Fireteam staring at him. “What?” He raised an eyebrow at the weird looks he was getting.

Ryan shook his head, “You spaced out just as we were about to start. You alright?”

He quickly nodded, twirling the longsword in his left hand, “What? Yeah I’m fine. Let’s just get this over with already.” He started forward towards the Fallen ships. He didn’t know why he was suddenly thinking of the day he got the First Horseman but he really didn’t want to talk about it. He’d cut down a hundred Cabal before he even mentioned it to anyone.

Hephaestus jogged to catch up to the German but quickly fell into line with his shotgun resting on his shoulder. “Do I even want to know?” He asked as he watched the invisible Nightstalker sprint off ahead of them.

Adrich shook his head, “No.” He answered plainly. He smirked a little when he saw the Nightstalker barely avoid a piece of broken runway he was going so fast. Pair a Stalker with the St0mp-EE5 and you’ve got about an hours worth of entertainment of them hilariously trying to avoid the most basic obstacles.

“Fair enough.” Hephaestus conceded. He wasn’t about to pry where the German didn’t want him to.

“Did we decide whether we were putting this on the Raid list or not?” Adrich quickly changed topics, stepping over the piece of tarmac the Hunter ahead of them had almost tripped over.

“Harri and Myth managed to convince Blythe and Reed somehow.” Hephaestus nodded. “And Myth decided to name the raid ‘Storms’ End’.”

“What?” Adrich exclaimed in horror. “That’s terrible!” He wished Myth was with the group so he could death glare the little idiot.

“I know.” The time-hardened Exo chuckled lowly beneath his helmet. “I had half a mind to tell him to wait until you snapped out of it so you could do the naming.”

The German quickly turned the Fireteam’s voice channel on, “Myth because you are an idiot I am renaming this Raid to ‘Thunders Last Clap’.” All he could see ahead of him on his displays was the little name tag where the Hunter was with his chosen nickname but it was enough to shoot him a glare.

“Is that a fart joke?” Ryan asked, lagging with Harri about ten or so feet behind the two Titans.

“Yes it is.” Adrich nodded.

“So professional.” Amelie rolled her eyes.

 

* * *

 

The two large Titans stood on the roof of the main administration block, looking down on the makeshift Fallen camp. Tents were setup in the far right corner of the courtyard with the Archons’ in the middle of the thirty or so pyramid style tents. Dregs and Vandals milled around the area whilst more Vandals patrolled the shielded exits and in the ground level of the buildings around them. But no Archon. Myth was in the courtyard scouting around the area for any clue but there just wasn’t any sign of it. Amelie was on the opposite roof, ready to blow out one of the shield generators that Ryan and Harri were sneaking towards.

The two had already taken out the four dregs guarding the abandoned ships on the runway, well Adrich had as Hephaestus’ shotgun would’ve blown their cover instantly. Myth had reported about the shields which’d given the two the good idea to climb up to the roof of the front building to get the drop on the house.

“Myth,” Ryan’s voice came on the channel. “Any sign of the Archon?”

“None.” Myth barely whispered a response. “I’ve searched everywhere but it’s just not here.”

“Both levels?”

“Yes.” The Exo hissed.

Adrich looked around again. Why wasn’t it there? He backed away from the ledge and summoned _Jaeger_ to bring up the blue holographic map of the compound. He crouched down with Hephaestus quickly following suit. Their ships having done an areal scan on the flyby gave them a full 3D layout with red dots pinpointing the last known locations of each life sign. The larger the dot, the bigger the target. There just wasn’t the big dot for the leader. “Where did he go?” He thought out loud, resting his chin on his hand.

Hephaestus moved his hands over the map then moved them away from one another, making the map zoom in to the courtyard. “Maybe there’s a bunker underneath or something?” There was a very faint square lining the courtyard, causing him to point to it.

“Like Enri?” Ryan spoke up, looking at a smaller version of the map with Harri. 

“Yeah.” Hephaestus nodded. “When she hid in the cave on Rhea we couldn’t find her until we started slamming on the ground and broke through. We just need to do the same if there is some sort of bunker underneath us.”

“I can do it.” Adrich added. “I’ve got enough height.” He clenched his fist tightly, letting the arc light engulf his arm.

“Right.” Ryan let Ghost disappear. “Amelie, take out the shields on my mark so Harri and I can go in. Drop grenades around the tents and we’ll take care of the rest. Then Adrich, you’ll use fists of havoc on the ground and if need be, so will Hephaestus. Myth, you just hide and take out the stragglers.” He explained as he peaked around the corner for just a moment.

“Got it.” A chorus of four voices answered.

 _Jaeger_ disappeared with the map as the two Titans on the roof stood up and moved back over to the ledge, making no attempt to be discrete.

“Now.” Ryan muttered.

An ear-piercing gunshot rang throughout the compound swiftly followed by a loud explosion at the lower left shield, allowing Ryan and Harri to sprint through and unleash their guns on the scared Fallen. An Incendiary, a Lightning and an Arcbolt grenade rained down on the already confused Dregs and Vandals, making them look up to see two Titans and a Warlock looking down on them with unreadable expressions under their helmets. Lightning sporadically spiked along the ground to the nearest living being and sparked down from a sudden small storm ground whilst flames erupted again and again and again, burning everything it touched. Even just a grenade created by a powerful enough Guardian was devastating in its own right.

Pained screeches were quickly silenced by Ryan’s surprising expert marksmanship with his shotgun and Harri’s less accurate auto rifle. It wasn’t that the gun itself was off, just the young Guardian wielding it wasn’t the most accurate. “Harri! Left!” Ryan shouted as he gunned down a Vandal trying to put a sword through his head.

“What?” The youngest German whipped his head around just as a Dreg barrelled into him, knocking him down before it started jumping and slicing at him. Before he even had time to punch the Dreg off of him, another ear-piercing bullet passed through the Dregs’ head.

“Be more aware of your surroundings Frost.” Amelie said as she fired another bullet at a second Dreg tying to take the youngest Titan out.

“Sorry!” Harri scrambled to his feet only to have Ryan pull him over to the side, away from the centre of the courtyard. “What’s going on?” He was a little more than confused.

“Adrich! Now!” Ryan raised his gun in the air to the two Titans on the rooftop.

Adrich nodded and jogged a few feet away to where the map was, stretching his fingers out to grasp onto the light tingling feeling that was the arc light trying to reach out to him as well. He concentrated on the weird tingling for a moment before he suddenly balled his fists and slammed them together causing lightening to jump from his fists up his arms to the rest of his body. He sharply turned and in a flash, sprinted back towards the edge and leapt off, raising his hands as high and as far back as his muscles would allow before he brought his electrified fists down on the red earth.

Large, almost white lightning flew up all around the deep crater the Striker Titan made along with the dirt and rocks flying out of the mans’ path. The impact was so powerful, the ground around them shook, making Harri and Myth nearly loose their balance. Adrich didn’t stop for a moment and proceeded to punch the ground again and again and again until he was panting and out of breath, his torn hands laying limp by his side as he stood in the deep crater.

“Damnit.” He cursed angrily. The crater was about twice as tall as him and he by no means was short. But it wasn’t deep enough. “Hephaestus!” He shouted just before he leapt out of the large hole.

He took a deep breath in, trying to catch his breath for a moment before he climbed back up to the roof to give it another try. Hephaestus slammed into the crater just as he painfully summoned _Jaeger_ , making the ground once again shake but he took no notice of it. “New gloves and gauntlets little buddy.” He said tiredly.

 _Jaeger_ nodded and expanded his body. Adrich quickly threw the shredded gloves and damaged armour to the ground before his ghost replaced the armour with new-ish armour from his inventory. “Danke.” He nodded and let the ghost disappeared again. It wasn’t too difficult to scale the building back to the top but using the light would take a chunk out of any Guardian.

“It’s still not enough.” Hephaestus grunted, resorting to punch the ground over and over like his German brother had.

“I’m almost there.” Adrich answered, using all of his strength to pull him up the final leg to the roof. He fiddled with the new gauntlets, trying to get them to fit properly as he crossed over to the edge of the roof. “How far do you think we’ve got to go?” He looked over at Amelie who was crouching on the edge of her building.

“It’s hard to say.” The French woman glanced over to the red dust covered Titan.

“If I’d have known we’d actually have to put effort into this, I never would’ve agreed to it.” He waited for god-namesake to climb out of the ship sized hole to activate his light again.

“Didn’t you know Archons are especially tricky to catch?” Ryan grinned beneath his helmet, watching from the side lines with Myth and Harri.

“They’re never _this_ hard to catch though.” He argued. With the hole clear he slammed his fists together again and sprinted off the edge.

It turned out he didn’t even need to follow up the initial smash as as soon as the impact broke the earth below him the ground caved in and he fell with the huge chunks of hard rock down to a concrete floor below. He slammed into the ground hard, causing his light to jolt away from him and several loud cracks. A small whine escaped the airless Titans’ lips when he came out of the initial shock of falling a good twenty or so feet. Several bones were definitely broken and at least one lung had collapsed. He knew that much.

“Adrich! You alive?” Harri called from the top of the hole.

“ _Jaeger. . . heile mich. . .”_ He wheezed, rolling onto his back with his non-broken arm.

Ryan shook his head, “I’ll take that as a yes.” And proceeded to jump into the hole after his friend. He had a much more gracious and controlled landing allowing him to throw his arms out wide and summon a bright purple Sentinel shield. Four blurs dropped into the bubble around them after a moment each with their guns raised at the pitch black bunker around them. Even the harsh light flooding down from the hole did nothing to illuminate anything but the six Guardians to everything else in the bunker with them.

Hissing, quiet screeches and the groans of Adrich being fixed filled the five Guardians ears. Subtle scratches of what sounded like Vandals ran circles around them, getting closer and closer with each circle. Ryan waited until Adrich stopped groaning and threw a voidwall grenade to see what they were dealing with. A line of fire erupted from the grenade and to their horror, stood just in front of where the fire wall ended was the Archon itself with two hooded, bulky Vandals behind it.

Adrich slowly sat up, looking around to see what his group had frozen up at and when his eyes landed on the Archon dressed in head to toe in dark greys and blacks with markings of bright blue lightning bolts, his eyes went wide. It was a lot bigger than he had expected it to be. “Shhhhhhhhhit.” He swore.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second chapter Wooo! I will be focusing on writing this story before I continue with The Awoken Hunter for those wondering (basically hiatus-ing because this story leads up to the other book and I want to explore/explain Adrich first)
> 
> Also published on Wattpad if you prefer that site (it has funny gifs and images)
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/177566681-the-first-horseman


	5. Chapter Three

 

“Shhhhhhhhhit.”

“Yeah.” Ryan nodded.

“Scale of one to ten,” Harri thought out loud, “How screwed are we?”

“Think of a number.” Hephaestus replied.

“Uhhh. . . twenty-three?” Harri hazarded an answer.

“That’s how screwed we are.” 

The Archon made no move, no sound, no indication of anything other than that it was staring at the Fireteam. It was as if it was stunned from the sudden appearance of six Guardians. Its’ four eyes bore into Ryans’, both Fallen and Human trying to see what the other was going to do next. “ _German only, they can understand what we’re saying._ ” Ryan hissed in his native tongue.

“ _But what if they know German_?” Harri whispered.

Adrich rolled his eyes, “ _Harri they’re Fallen not damned linguists._ ” Though the youngest German was strong, he wasn’t the smartest of the group.

“ _But they could though_.”

Ryan sighed a little, “ _Hey Archon. Do you understand us_?” The Archon titled its’ head in obvious confusion. “ _See? It doesn’t understand us at all_.”

As soon as _Jaeger_ finished healing Adrich, he sprung to his feet, scooping up his sword on the way. He stood next to Ryan whilst he looked around, making mental notes on how many Fallen there were in the bunker and which ones posed actual threats. Thirty one or thirty two. The Vandals guarding the Archon were acting as Captains but just hadn’t had time to be given the actual rank so they’d pack just as big of a punch a Captain would. The Archon itself looked strong but the other Vandals around them didn’t pose much of a threat. They were the scared stragglers that’d run at the first sign of danger. “ _The Archon and the guards will be the main problem._ ” He spoke up after a long pause.

“ _Yeah_.” Ryan bobbed his head in agreement. “ _This is basically ad control whilst two or three of us focus the Archon. Any takers?_ ”

Myth’s hand shot up, “ _I can tether. Just tell me when._ ”

“ _I’ve been itching to use my shotgun._ ” Hephaestus added with an evil smirk. “ _I got ad control when Myth tethers_.”

“ _Okay._ ” Ryan made a mental note to avoid the two Exos. “ _That leaves Reed and Frost. Reed, I presume you’ll be at the back wearing down the shields for us?_ ”

“ _Yes._ ” Amelie cocked the sniper rifle just to prove her point. “ _I’ll need a barrier but other than that._ ”

“ _Adrich._ ”

“ _Yep._ ”

“ _Frost?_ ”

Harri looked up at the Titans from where he was absentmindedly gazing. “ _Ummm. . . Just put me where you want me. I can handle it._ ”

“ _Alright._ ” Ryan thought for a moment then continued. “ _Stick with Reed at the back then and build up your super. Create another barrier if Wolfs’ runs out but if not just stay there and hide. Wolf and I will charge the Vandals then the Archon. When we’ve killed the Vandals you’ll run in and use your super on the Archon, it should be enough to kill it. Okay?_ ” There was no easy way to explain the plan as before Harri had joined the team, the five of them had just used grunts, callouts and names to co-ordinate on attacks. Having to actually explain what everyone already knew they were going to do was a challenge in it’s own right.

“ _Okay._ ” Harri repeated back, his voice laced with not-so-well hidden confusion and uncertainty.

Adrich picked up on it and rested his free hand on the nervous Titans’ shoulder. “ _Just hide with Amelie and keep her shielded. I’ll call to you when you need to slam on the Archon. That’s all you need to do._ ” He tried to be gentle with the youngest German but it was hard. Usually when someone screwed up or didn’t understand his or Ryans’ directions he ended up yelling at them or leaving them to figure it out themselves, he just didn’t have the patience to explain it slowly and repeat it if necessary. He did try with Harri though. The man had been so nervous on the first Raid they’d done as a six-man Fireteam and they’d had to try over and over again when he kept screwing up. Ryan had had to calm him down on several occasions so he wouldn’t blow up at the inexperienced Titan and eventually they completed the Raid, just twelve or so hours after they’d intended to finish. He did try to make the effort to be calm.

“ _Got it_.” Harri nodded a little more confidently.

They were sure he’d get what was going on eventually and Amelie would direct him through the whole thing. It was just a case of making sure they covered for him.

“ _Right._ ” Ryan lifted his hand to the purple bubble surrounding them. “ _All Ghosts make sure you’re hidden and we’ll go on the count of five_.”

Three flashes of light and the Ghosts were hidden away from the attack that prompted Ryan to start counting down. “ _Five._ ” The Fireteam Leader started along with the sounds of guns being reloaded or cocked.

_Jaeger_ suddenly turned off Adrich’s mic. “Is this really the best option we’ve got? Harri is nowhere near ready to take on an Archon.”

“ _Four._ ”

“I know.” Adrich resisted nodding in agreement with his Ghost. “But we follow Ryans’ orders. If this is the way he wants us to attack then we just have to go with it.”

“ _Three._ ”

“But you’re pretty much the second in command, you can tell him to stop and reconsider the plan.” _Jaeger_ tried to reason. “There’s a good chance Harri and Grim will die if we go this route.”

“ _Two_.”

“Orders are orders. Ryan’s almost as old as Cayde. I can’t go against him.” He retorted angrily.

“ _One._ ”

“I still don’t like it.” _Jaeger_ huffed before he switched the mic back on.

“ _Now!_ ” Ryan yelled and dissipated the bubble before immediately creating a full body shield so everyone could get into place.

Adrich, Amelie and Harri sprinted to the back of the large bunker where Adrich slid to a stop and created smaller, half body barrier then doubled back to Ryan whilst Amelie and harri slid behind the small shield. Guns were already firing off bright red bullets, lighting up the otherwise pitch black area and suddenly all of them realised there were at least twice the amount of Fallen than they’d estimated. Ryan sent a signal to Myth who immediately did as silently commanded and fired his bow made of pure void light in the middle of the Vandals and few dregs that were racing towards them. Hephaestus charged in less than a second later firing round after round, shoulder charging when he could to wipe out the small hoard. The two remaining German Titans started their first run on the four Vandal guards all the while trying to dodge the Archon firing its scotch cannon at them.

With the room suddenly lit up with fire from both sides, they could just about make out shapes of crates stacked high around the edges in-between shelves lining the room. One or two vehicles looked abandoned near the outer edges where one or two Dregs still cowered away from their execution. The Archon and the Vandals moved around in the centre of the room, never staying in one spot for a single moment in fear of being caught, not that it would do them much good anyway. Nothing stopped two previous members of the Sunbreaker Order.

“Woah.” Harri muttered, watching the four Guardians almost effortlessly take on so many Fallen with wide eyes. He was a decade and a half old but he had nothing on the two Exos and Humans in front of him. Myth was a good fifty or so years old, Adrich was the better part of a century old, Ryan was almost as old as Cayde and Hephaestus? Well no one really knew how old he was. People speculated he was as old as The Speaker himself. Each of them seemed to know what the other was thinking and what they were going to do before the did it. Ryan leapt over one Vandal and elbowed it into Adrich’s electrified fist and bashed it straight into the ground before he immediately ducked and turned, creating a second half barrier to stop the blast from the scorch cannon of the Archon circling them in a panicked rush. Hephaestus flicked his left arm back to create a Sentinel shield before he threw it straight at one dreg which killed it on impact and made it bounce into a Vandal as Myth slid under the shield and unloaded three bullets from his pulse rifle into the Vandal charging at Hephaestus’ back. They were all seemingly on the same wave length.

“Harri. Shield.” Amelie snapped the young Titan out of his wonderment.

“Oh, right, sorry.” He quickly made another shield that was no where near as strong as Adrich’s but it would hold for its intended purpose.

Even Amelie was in tune with the others, firing precise bullets from her scout rifle that missed her teammates by millimetres but landed in the Fallens heads. Each bullet in rapid succession of one another, pause to reload and fire again. She was like a machine with how deadly accurate her aim was and how fast she emptied each magazine. “Harri, how close are you to super?” She asked in-between bullets.

“Almost there.” He nodded, feeling the arc light surge through his core down to his arms and legs.

“We’re almost done here.” Ryan chimed in, blowing the head off of the Vandal on the ground for good measure with the shotgun that was usually strapped to his thigh.

“Yeah.” Adrich grunted, raising the First Horsemen as high as his arm would allow then brought it down as fast as he could on the last remaining Vandal, slicing in diagonally in half, leaving splatters of burning solar light along the edges of the cut.

“Myth,” Amelie quickly took command, having the best vantage spot to see the entire fight. There were still ten or so Vandals around the area, most of which were hiding but a few were still charging at Hephaestus who clothes lined two of them out of boredom. “Once Hephaestus has dealt with the last Vandal, Myth I want you to tether the Archon so Harri you can use your super on it.” Five nods followed her orders.

“Are we just ditching the German now?” Myth absentmindedly asked.

“It was really so they wouldn’t know our initial plan.” Ryan shook his head, retreating away from the Archon manically firing the cannon at anything that moved. “It’s just him now. What can he do?”

“Burn us alive with the cannon spitting fire?” Myth offered an answer.

Ryan glared through his helmet at the Stalker. “Not helpful.”

“Now!” Amelie suddenly shouted when Hephaestus shoulder charged the last Vandal into a wall.

Myth nodded to no one in particular and leapt into the air, one hand drawn back to his chin, one stretched out and clenching a bow made of pure Void light. In the few seconds he had to aim in the air, he fired the single arrow straight at the Archons’ feet, tethering it to the spot. “Harri! Go for it!” The Hunter gave the thumbs up, retreating to Hephaestus.

“Right!” The youngest Titan shot up, letting the light loose and spark up his hands and encase his body in arc light. He hesitated for a moment before he sprinted straight through the half barrier and over the ten or so metres to the Archon, crouching down at the last second to put all of his strength into the leap the last leg straight into the huge Fallen. A ring of lightning exploded around them, making even Ryan step back to avoid the bright but deadly electricity. The Archon and a severed arm fell to the ground but it wasn’t enough. The youngest Titan had dealt a significant amount of damage and had even managed to knock off a limb but it wasn’t enough to kill him.

“Good job Harri!” Adrich called out with a wide grin plastered on his face. Seeing the Titan show off his strength always made him smile. “Retreat to our position and take a breather while we finish the bastard off!”

Harri quickly got back to his feet once again, slightly deflated that he couldn’t kill the damned thing in one hit. He was supposed to be strong, as strong as anyone else on the Fireteam yet he couldn’t kill one panicked Archon. He grumpily jogged back to his previous spot next to Amelie while Ryan and Adrich sprinted past him, earning him a quick pat on the back from the younger of the two Germans which hurt more than anything.

“Good job.” Amelie smiled as the Titan plopped back down next to her. She quickly threw an arc bolt grenade, nearly hitting one of the three Titans converging on the Archon in the process.

“Hey!” Hephaestus shot a half-assed glare through his helmet at the Warlock.

“What?” Amelie’s smile only grew.

Hephaestus very visibly rolled his eyes as he threw his right arm back and a clang rang out throughout the fairly barren bunker when a Hammer of Sol materialised in the Exo’s hand. Another clang quickly followed suit from Ryan and then a smaller, more muffled clang as the First Horsemen changed element to Solar. Myth faltered back with a second tether to help.

“Let’s finish this.” Adrich twirled his flaming longsword in his hand before the three old Titans closed the gap.

It took a matter of mere moments for the Archon to lay dead on the ground missing more arms and its’ head. They’d accidentally sent one of the swords the Archon had been holding after Harri had sent the cannon flying with the initial attack. Blood and solar light splattered the area and covered the three of them in gross blue blood. The large Exo threw his last hammer off to the side, not really caring where it landed while the oldest German let his hammer drop to the floor with a decently loud bang. The three were exhausted and aching all over and just done with it but they were glad it was over. And so surprisingly quickly. Each of them had expected it would go on for at least four or five hours or maybe even a couple days depending on how hard it would be to find the damned Fallen but it hadn’t.

It was finally over.

Adrich quickly clipped his sword to his back then wrenched his helmet off to finally run a hand through his hair after so many infuriating hours of wearing the damned thing. God did he hate wearing helmets. Normally he didn’t have to wear a helmet but for Raids and Strikes, Ryan would refuse to start until he put the stupid things on. But now that it was over, no more helmet! He let it drop to the ground just before he moved over to the dead Fallen to collect the head. “Bloody hell- it smells- so bad-“ The smell of the dead Fallen was so bad it nearly made him throw up and his eyes water. “ _Jaeger- head-_ “

“What do they eat?” Ryan threw his helmet off to cover his nose, the helmet doing jack shit to stop the smell.

Hephaestus shook his head, thankful in that moment he could switch off his sense of smell at any given moment. “I don’t think I want to know.” He turned to retrieve Myth from aimlessly kicking the scattered dead Fallen.

_Jaeger_ quickly popped up next to Adrich and flew down to the Archon head to transport it to a hopefully air-tight box on his ship. “Even I can smell that.” He moved back over to Adrich to escape the wholly foul and putrid smell.

Amelie clipped her sniper rifle to her back before she stood up to dust off her red dirt covered robes. “Let’s go Harri.” She glanced down to the Titan only to double take when she saw a large pool of blood around his motionless body. The sword they’d sent flying had gonethrough through the right side of his helmet all the way out the other side. “Guys?” She staggered back a little.

“What?” Ryan turned to see what was going on. “Oh.” He mumbled as soon as he saw it.

Grim was hovering over his Guardian, scanning the wound nervously. “I need the sword taken out before I can revive him.” The Ghost turned to the five surprised Guardians.

“Shit.” Adrich breathed and quickly made his way over to his dead brother. “I did that.” He angrily shook his head at himself as he crouched down and inspected the sword before he quickly yanked the sword out. “Grim wait a moment, see if the eye is still in tact.” The sword had gone dangerously close to where his eye would be.

Grim nodded and made the ruined helmet disappear to reveal the very large sword wound running from just above Harri’s right eye all the way up to his hairline. He quickly expanded his body and scanned the area. “The eye is fine. The blade missed the eye by a centimetre.”

“Good.” Adrich nodded. “Revive him. _Jaeger_ , put the sword on the ship.” He flicked his hand out to bring his ghost back out.

“What would you want with an Archon sword?” Hephaestus chuckled.

“Dunno.” Adrich shrugged. “Something destructive.”

A loud gasp and a Titan bolting upright signalled Harri’s revival, “ _Mein gott..._ ” Tears welled in his eyes as a hand went to his face to find the fatal wound.

“Harri, you alright?” Adrich rested a hand on the youngest German’s shoulder to keep him upright.

The Youngest German was physically fine. Grim had healed the wound almost to completion with the rez but there was still a long and deep cut in its place. There definitely would be a good chunk of his eyebrow missing for a couple weeks at least if the scar didn’t set by the time he asked Grim to finish healing the cut. “Y-Yeah. I just never get used to dying.” Harri laughed a little.

Myth nodded in understanding, “I don’t think anyone ever really does.” The Exo Hunter was famous for his weird ability to avoid dying. He managed to avoid it like the plague and was only killed when one of his teammates got too annoyed with him.

“That’s because for a Hunter you’re surprisingly hard to kill.” Hephaestus grunted.

“And yet I still manage to get a sword through the head.” Harri laughed a little, wiping his eyes on the back of his gloved hand.

Adrich shook his head and pushed himself to his feet so he could pull the younger German to his feet. “No, that was my fault, bad timing. Come on.” He waited till he eventually accepted his hand and pulled the just-dead Titan to his feet.

“Right.” Ryan took command again. “Anyone wants to look around for materials, now is the time. Meet us back at the ships, we head back to The Tower in ten.” He stated.

Myth nodded, “Yeah, I’ll meet you guys there. I saw a spear that I like.”

“Okay then.” Amelie chuckled. Why were the Nightstalkers always the weirdest out of all of the Hunters?

* * *

 

Six ships flew in a ‘V’ formation through Earths’ atmosphere to the Last City. Each ship vastly different but all had one commonality. A white Ahamkara skull with a sword through the skull painted on on one of the wings of each ship. The symbol Ryan, Hephaestus, Jackal-5 and Adrich created together after they’d killed one of the last straggling Ahamkara in a four-man fireteam during the Great Ahamkara Hunt, just weeks after Adrich had been reborn. They’d initially just kept it to the four of them but had let other Guardians who’d joined their fireteam at various points use it whilst they ran with them. Though Jackal was no longer in the team, they didn’t say a single word about it. After all, he’d been the one to deliver the final blow. 

Amelie and Hephaestus had immediately picked up on Harri’s standoffish and slightly grumpy demeanour but weren’t about to say anything till they got to the Tower and could have a bit more of a private chat. The rest were non the wiser, well maybe Adrich knew what was up but the German would rather kill a hundred Archons before he talked about things like feelings and emotions.

Speaking of the German who avoided talking about feelings like the plague, “I’ll do a flyby whilst you guys dock. I’ve got a gross head to deliver.” He glanced up at the screen showing the hull of the ship where the smell of a decapitated Archon sat in a very tightly sealed box was filling his ship with a gagging smell.

“To the man that made us do this in the first place.” Myth retorted cheekily.

“You guys didn’t have to come with me.” Adrich shook his head. “I could’ve managed fine on my own.”

“And if you did, you’d be long dead by now.” Ryan chimed in with a smug grin plastered on his face.

“ _Arschgeige_.” Adrich rolled his eyes.

“Your point?”

“That I hate you.”

“What’s new?”

“I swear to god. If you weren’t my brother. . .” Adrich groaned. “I just want to get this over and done with. This is the last thing I have to do for the Drifter then I’m getting cheesecake.” He could just about taste the godly dessert.

“It’ll just go straight to your hips.” Amelie chimed in.

“Has that ever stopped me before?” He smirked as he picked up a tablet he’d shoved in a makeshift overhead shelf just before the mission started. He yanked off the left glove before he opened the last conversation he’d had with the Drifter.

 

Drifter. I got your head. Which spot? - Wolf

 

“-osn’t matter. I’ll meet you guys at the bar. Zavala will have my ass if I don’t report to him.”

“I’ll go with.” Myth added. “I need to hand off the footage and map data I got to Cayde anyway.”

“Cheers.” Ryan nodded.

“No problem. I’ve always wanted to see Zavala shout.”

“He’s not going to shout.” They could hear the eye roll.

“No, he is.” Adrich laughed. “And for once it won’t be directed at me.”

“It’ll still get directed at you. I bet he’ll vent at you through me.”

“Sounds about right.” Adrich shrugged a little. God did Zavala hate him. And just because he fell in with some of the less reputable Guardians.

A sudden vibration in his hands made him look down at the screen.

A reply.

  

Shore. North. - Drifter

 

Last time. I promise. - Drifter

  

Better be. The Archon was hard enough. - Wolf

  

Ready and waiting for you. - Drifter

 

K. - Wolf

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3! Ayyyy and didn't take nearly as long to come out!
> 
> My writing sucks I know
> 
> Also published on Wattpad if you prefer that site (it has funny gifs and images)
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/177566681-the-first-horseman


	6. Chapter Four

 

God did he hate the meeting places The Drifter chose. The particular one he chose seemed to be on some desolate rock on the outer reaches of The Reef. Barely anything grew in the tangled mess of a place, nothing lived for very long but there were signs that there was or at least were people there recently. He couldn’t care less about the place itself, there were a couple marks loosely resembling a spider painted in white on rocks here and there and Fallen guns and armour scattered around the place but it meant nothing to him. Thank god this was the last time he had to meet up with the damned man to deliver the Archon head strapped to his belt.

He took his time making his way over to the Drifters’ beacon set up for him but when he got close his eyes narrowed. The man wasn’t alone. He unclipped the main clasp keeping the First Horsemen against his back, ready to unleash it if need be. “Drifter!” Adrich made himself known, making the two shadowy figures turn to him.

The larger of the two figures recognised the Titan and made his way to meet up with the German, “Wolf! You made it!” Drifter beamed.

Adrich picked up his pace a little and soon enough he was face to face with the secretive man, “Yeah. I thought we’d be alone.” He gestured to the figure slowly advancing towards them.

“Oh, him.” Drifter glanced back to the man, “You’ve got nothing to worry about. He’s a friend.”

“Riiight.” He eyed the cloaked man. A Hunter.

“Anyway,” The larger man clapped his hands together excitedly, “You got my favour?”

Adrich nodded and unhooked the Archon head from his belt before he held it up in front of him, “One Archon head. Nearly cost me my brother to get it.” The end of the neck where he’d separated it from its body was still splattered with the First Horsemen’s solar light, it’d probably never fade.

“Key word, nearly.” Drifter laughed, reaching out to take it.

Adrich happily handed over the rancid smelling head, “Yeah.” His eyes narrowed a little at the Hunter behind Drifter.

“And the House of Storms?” Drifter raised an eyebrow partly in response to the Titans’ subtle facial movement, partly in genuine curiosity.

“As far as I can tell,” The German Titan crossed his arms over his heavily armoured chest, “Gone. One or two dregs could’ve gotten away but I doubt they’d last long. I didn’t see any of them still standing once we were done.”

“Good.” Drifter nodded before he brought forth his ghost and a moment later a chest appeared next to him with a small thump. “I know this was the last favour you owed me but I thought you could use with a little something for the trouble.” A genuine but sad smile appeared on the larger Hunters’ face. He was glad he didn’t have to boss the already scary enough Titan around anymore but he was a bit sad that this would most likely be the last time they’d see one another.

Adrich brought forth _Jaeger_ and lowered him to the chest. He didn’t need to check what was in it. He knew it would be mostly full of glimmer that would go to Harri and some Exotic piece of armour or weapon. He hoped armour.“ _Danke_.” He held out his hand.

The Drifter happily took it, “No problem Wolf. We had a good run together.”

Adrich nodded with a wide grin, remembering some of the times when it was truly fun to hang out with Drifter and one of his crews. He was about to say something when something flashed in the background making it reflect on the Hunters’ gun, no Hand Cannon, strapped to his thigh. Thorn.

He yanked his hand away and in a flash the First Horsemen was in his hands and pointed at the dark Hunter, the blade blazing with solar light. “Drifter, the hell is going on?! You thought I wouldn’t recognise Thorn?!” He gave the Hunter a once over. The cape was pretty shredded, even by Cayde’s standards, the armour shaded so dark it was hard to see anything and the helmet, well its eyes were glowing now as the hand cannon so many Guardians feared was pointed directly at him.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Drifter took a large step back, raising his arms in the process. “Wolf calm down! It’s not what it looks like!”

“It looks an awful lot like Thorn _Arschgeige_!” He didn’t let his guard drop for a moment. How could he have been so stupid to trust Drifter enough not to question the Hunter further.

“It’s not Thorn!” The smaller Hunter shouted, turning the weapon to the side. It was the Last Word. The predecessor to Thorn.

Adrich slowly let the First Horsemen drop with one of his arms to the side and pushed himself back up from the wide stance he’d taken. “Who are you?” He ran a shaky hand through his almost untameable hair to get a better look at the man.

The Hunter swiftly removed his helmet, leaving the silver helmet on the ground behind him and the Last Word back in its holster as he walked over to meet the Titan. “Shin Malphur.”

“The guy who took out Dredgen Yor?” Adrich was more than a little taken back by the man. The infamous Hunter who’d taken down the nightmare incarnate that was Dredgen Yor. The man who’d crafted Thorn from the Last Word. The man who’d killed so many of his brothers and sisters.

“Yeah.” Shin bowed his head a little.

“You have no idea how many of us owe you our lives.” He couldn’t stop gawking at the Hunter. If there was one Hunter he respected out of all of them, it would be the one standing in front of him. He came face to face with Dredgen Yor once. That day he lost two of his best friends and nearly lost _Jaeger_. If it wasn’t for his friends telling him to run whilst he still could, he wouldn’t be alive to meet the slayer of the Dredgen. “Wait- why is he here? I thought you hated him?” He turned back to the Drifter.

“We’re sorting some stuff out to do with the Shadows. I don’t hate him we just. . . don’t agree on a lot of things is all.” Drifter explained cooly. “Nothing too interesting.”

Adrich nodded a little and sheathed his longsword. “Right. . .  well, Drifter I hope we never meet again.” He held out his hand to the man he called a mentor. 

“It’ll be too soon if we do Wolf.” The Drifter accepted the hand and pulled the lean Titan into a tight hug. 

The hug should’ve surprised him but with the unhealthy amount of time he’d spent running with the man, nothing he did ever really surprised him anymore. He happily accepted the hug from the larger of the two Hunters and again wasn’t surprised when the man whispered in his ear something he obviously didn’t want the Dredgen killer to know. The few words got him to raise an eyebrow at the weird statement but he shrugged it off and released the man a moment later.

“As if that’s gonna happen anytime soon.” Adrich chuckled. “I like the life I’ve got right now.”

“Still.” The Drifter’s expression hardened a little. “Everything comes to an end eventually.”

Adrich nodded with a small sigh. “I know. I nearly lost my youngest Titan today. Just before I ripped off one of the Archon arms the bastard sent the sword it was holding at me. I dodged out of the way but didn’t realise the sword went in Frost’s head.”

“Is he alright?” Drifter cringed a little, having had a similar experience.

“Yeah he’s fine, just a bit pissed off I think.” Pissed off was an understatement. He knew quite well through messages from Hephaestus-13 and Ryan that the youngest Titan had been very quiet and silently raging when they’d finally returned to the Tower. He’d gone out to drink with them for all of ten minutes before he stormed off to the med bay muttering in German about his eye.

“That’s good.”

“Yeah.” Adrich nodded, flashing out Jaeger to summon his sparrow before he smoothly flung a leg over the seat and into the foot hold. “I’ll see you around Drifter. The later the better.”

“Yeah, be seeing you Adrich.” Drifter waved, watching the Striker Titan rev the engine and shoot off on the pitch black and bronze sparrow, giving a half assed wave as he did so.

The two remaining Guardians stood in an almost eery silence for a long moment until the smaller Hunter moved over to stand beside the larger of the two. “Dredgen?” One single word came from the Gunslinger.

“No.” Drifter quickly shook his head, “I’d shoot him myself if he ever became one.”

“Vanguard?”

“If he’d ever play by their rules.”

“Good.”

 

* * *

 

It was weird how cathartic riding a sparrow was. Feeling the wind slice past you as you move at borderline-suicidal speeds through the frozen red desserts of Mars or the rainy Forrests of Venus. Watching legions of enemies he’d usually have to fight through fly past him as he hit one of two of them in his path. The stupid stretch of rock he was racing through was occupied by random small houses and groups of Fallen, none of them consequence but all of them seemed to be trying to target him more than usual. Maybe they’d heard what he did to the House of Storms. It wouldn’t surprise him, they hadn’t been exactly subtle about wiping out the already decimated house. They’d literally made it rain fire and lightning.

“Adrich, incoming call from Corey.” _Jaegers’_ voice cut through his thoughts.

“Fine. Put him through on a private channel.” He gave a nod to no one in particular. 

It took a moment but the Australian was quickly connected. “Wolf! Your raid just went up. Why’d you go so light on them?” 

Adrich couldn’t help but smile a little at the Sunbreakers’ enthusiasm. “We had Frost with us. Didn’t want him to see anything that’d make him run from us screaming.”

“So instead you decided to let him almost loose an eye?”

He quickly rolled his sparrow to the side, out of the way of a Captain just as he dropped a grenade by his feet. “That wasn’t intentional.” He grumbled angrily. “I just didn’t realise where the sword went.”

“Suuure.” He could hear the eye-roll in his voice. “Was that the same with falling through the floor?”

“We had to get in somehow.” He could feel the lightning flowing through his veins start to make his hands sporadically twitch making him only grip the handles tightly to keep his anger under control. “It worked didn’t it?”

“Well yeah but you still killed yourself doing it.” 

“I’m not an Exo, I don’t have to worry about the resets.” Just for the hell of it, he shot up a smooth-looking rock, barrelling off the ledge to give him time to do a quick superman backflip before he landed harshly on the dirt below. 

“What did you just do?”

“Superman.” Adrich shrugged, pushing himself upright whilst he kept the sparrow speeding forward.

“I’m not gonna ask.” Corey muttered. “So everything sorted with Drifter?”

“ _Ja_. That was the last thing I owed him. Now I got nothing but free time and the Crucible calling my name.” Man he had sooooo many Awokens to beat up in the Crucible.

“Didn’t Shaxx ban you though?”

“For like a month.” Adrich rolled his eyes. “Why do you think I decided to finish off what I owed Drifter? I didn’t have anything better to do.”

“Wait, when did your ban end then?”

“About a week ago.” He pressed a button on the dash of his speeder to bring his ship around to the extraction point.

“Then why’d you bother to go after the Archon?”

“‘Cos me and Natasha were already hunting down the Archon and got the general position just a few days ago. It seemed like a waste to have the information and not use it.” In reality the Drifter had given him the Fallen House he had to hunt down months ago and he and Natasha had spent a good few months looking into leads and potential sites but nothing had lead to anything until yesterday but the Warlock had been caught up in a Raid with a bunch of new Guardians so he’d had to call in his Fireteam and go in without her. He would’ve preferred if it had just been the two of them but she’d urged him to take the team and use it as practice for Harri so he’d begrudgingly followed her orders.

 

“Couldn’t you have sent your team in by themselves and just delivered the head when they brought it to you.”

“I mean I could’ve,” Adrich let his head drop a little. “But I wanted to see this through to the end. That and I would never hear the end of it from Drifter if I didn’t do it myself.”

“He wouldn’t know.”

“Oh he would.” That did bring a small smile to his face. “He’s spent enough time with me to know when I’ve been the one to do the job.”

“You two must be pretty close, huh?” Corey laughed.

“Nah, I just used The First Horseman for everything.” The sword left such a distinct mark it was generally pretty easy to know when it’d been used. It was rare for him to use any other weapon.

“True- what? Yeah it’s him- yeah- alright, alright I’ll tell him… piss off.”

“Corey?” Adrich raised an eyebrow as his ship dropped out of orbit when he reached the extraction point. He hopped off the black sparrow, pressing a button on the way which immediately transported it back to his ship. “What was that about?” He brought out _Jaeger_ to take him to the cockpit.

“Zavala wants you back now.”

“What?” He said rather louder than he meant to. “What did I do now?”

“No it’s nothing like that. He’s not pissed at you, just needs you back as soon as possible so he can debrief you about a Fireteam needing extracting.”

A notification from Zavala popped up on his HUD to prove Corey’s point. “Damnit. I was hoping to get a small break in before anyone wanted me.” He grumbled just as Jaeger expanded his body and teleported the two of them into the cockpit of the large, sleek ship appropriately known as ‘No One Here’. God did he love the name of his ship, it always cheered him up when he departed or landed in the Hangars while everyone else hated the name with a passion. One of his finer names.

“Want me to tell Zavala you're busy?”

“No.” Adrich shook his head. “I’ll do it.” He brought the message up on the screen to his left while Jaeger piloted the ship into warp speed to Earth. “I just wanted to get out of this damned armour and take a shower before I did anything.”

“Want me to tell him you won’t be back for a couple hours?”

“ _Danke_.” He slumped back in his seat.

“Who do you want with you then? Usual team?”

“Depends what is is.” If it was anything serious he’d do a four-man team but if it wasn’t he’d just take Corey and Ryan. Just run three Sunbreakers and get it over with so he could go get a drink. 

“Tired?”

“Yeah.” A yawn escaped his lips.

“You should take a nap or something when you get back.”

“Probably.” A nap did sound good.

“Arvo’s waving at me. I should probably see what he wants. I’ll see you in a couple hours.”

“Give him a kick up the ass for me.” He smiled weakly, letting his heavy eyelids close.

“Seeya Wolf.”

“ _Auf wiedersehen_ Abram.” He stifled a yawn just as the call ended, allowing him to slump further into the unusually comfy pilot seat.

All the adrenaline that’d been pumping through his veins constantly for the past several hours had completely drained from his system leaving him sore and tired as he tried to fend off the overwhelming urge to sleep. He supposed he was lucky to only just be feeling the after effects rather than when he met up with Drifter for the last time. He could definitely use with a nap for at least an hour to regain some energy before Zavala sent him out on a Fireteam hunt. Though he did need a shower above anything else if not to relax his aching muscles but to calm him down and to stop smelling so bad. It was probably a good thing Ghosts couldn’t smell otherwise he’d be piloting the jump ship himself.

“Nap or shower first?” _Jaeger_ spoke up from his position next to his Guardian.

“ _Shower_.” He accidentally slipped back into German but he was just too tired to care.

“You really must be tired to be speaking German.” Of course _Jaeger_ had noticed his slip up.

“ _Of course you’d notice._ ” He lazily tried to bat at the Ghost. “ _But yeah. I feel like I could sleep for a decade at least_.”

That wasn’t surprising to the little light at all. He’d known Adrich to sleep for several days at a time only waking to eat or go to the toilet. “I didn’t think you pushed yourself that hard during the Raid.” He expanded his body to scan his Titan and found almost all of the adrenaline that’d been keeping him awake had left his system. It wasn’t that unusual but did raise the question of just how hard the Striker Titan had actually pushed himself.

“ _I used Fists of Havoc twice in the space of thirty seconds then died, had to create a half shield and then use my super again. None of it was easy._ ” He barely had the energy or effort to explain why he was so tired but he did it anyway just to spite the little light.

“I know.” The red-eyed ghost shook its body. “Just doesn’t explain the sudden adrenaline loss.”

“ _I also met up with Drifter. That can be exhausting in it’s own right sometimes_.” He was glad Drifter couldn’t hear him in that moment or he’d just a painful whack over the head.

“Talking with parents often is exhausting.” _Jaeger_ rebutted cheekily.

“ _Oi. I will put you in your old shell_.” He shot a half-assed glare up at the floating annoyance.

“As if you could in your current state.” _Jaeger_ moved just out of range as to not get swatted out of the air.

“ _I didn’t say right now._ ”

“Sounded like you did.”

“ _I swear to god I will give you to Drifter to play with._ ” He rolled his eyes dramatically at the cheeky Ghosts antics.

Instead of answering _Jaeger_ simply shook his body and moved back to his Guardians’ side. “Coming up on Earth now.” He eased the ship out of warp speed as to not slam into the planet and entered the atmosphere with the course mapped out to land in the hangar of The Tower.

“Finally.” Adrich forced himself to sit up and watch them dive through the layers of the atmosphere until they were soaring over the endless mountain range with the Tower gradually getting larger and larger in the distance. It was a sight no matter how many times he’d see, he would ever tire of. He still remembered the first time he’d flown back to the tower from his first mission after defeating one of the last straggling Ahamkara, how tired and wretched he’d smelled but he’d felt like a true Guardian that day and seeing the breath-taking sight of the Tower in the late afternoon sun was just the icing on the cake. He would never forget that feeling.

He barely realised it when they’d arched around to the Hangar and had slowed down to make the perfectly controlled landing whilst making sure the ship behind them stayed far enough away. It took all of a few seconds to land on one or two available landing pads and stand up just before _Jaeger_ transported them to the hangar outside. He landed rougher than he would’ve liked on his feet but didn’t bother to voice anything but rather looked over his ship and decided it was probably time for at least a wash. “ _Jaeger, tell the frames the ship needs a wash both inside and out. Try and get that Archon stench out_.”

“Already sent the order through.” _Jaeger_ affirmed, following his Titan over to the set of stairs. 

“ _Anything else you want to tell me?_ ” Of course he had. He gave a small wave to Holliday who was walking out with about five frames, each taking piles of equipment over to his ship.

“Not right now.”

“ _I hate you_.” He hissed.

“So you keep saying.” 

Adrich simply rolled his eyes once again as he started the trek to his apartment.

 

* * *

 

Steaming water cascaded down his pale and scarred back, massaging his sore and aching muscles begging to go back to sleep. In the end he’d chosen crashing on the couch in his armour over getting a shower and though it had given some energy back, it hadn’t been the best idea as most of his joints had locked up from sleeping in one position in heavy armour for over an hour. Not one of the smartest choices he’d ever made. He’d scrubbed the red dirt and grime that’d managed to get under his clothes away and had put something in his hair so he could just stand under the borderline boiling water for a while before he had to deal with the headache commonly known as Commander Zavala.

Ever since he’d spent ten years training with Iduntis who’d kept him on his feet for weeks at a time, he’d grown to love showers no matter how long or short they were. Just the feeling of almost being weightless without the literal tonnes of armour weighing him down and the sensation of his skin being able to breathe without the underclothes and tight suit keeping his armour attached to him was something of a daydream. While Iduntis had taught him everything he knew and had been what the Speaker was to Saint-14, a tiny part of him did hate the dead Titan for how little he’d gotten time to just relax and clean himself. Of course after he started running with Drifter, showers had become more common but only when someone commented on how bad any of them smelt, having been on the go for several days at a time without slowing to so much as eat. It was better, though with anymore than two Guardians who who were used to how bad the other smelt, it did get worse at times, especially when the one smelling worse than a Cabals’ breath refused to shower.

His nose wrinkled at the ghost smell that wafted through his nose for just a moment and made him remember the days when it was less tolerable around some of the Drifters’ old crew-mates. Come to think of it, it was barely tolerable most of the time to be around Hunters’ crew. They were all just so . . . disturbing. And when they weren’t they were violent or just down right deplorable as human beings. He remembered the time he’d gotten so annoyed with one crew-mate that he’d just snapped and unloaded all of the shotgun shells he had into his face. It was safe to say that that crew-mate wore a helmet for the rest of his unsurprisingly short life, not that he or Drifter had cared. Even the older of the two men hated the crew-mate and had actually laughed when he’d walked in on the German standing over the man with about ten shells scattered around them.

_“Get all the anger out Wolf?” Drifter asked with a small laugh, approaching the Striker Titan with a small amount of caution, seeing what he’d just done to the mans’ face and was still panting from the yelling he’d heard all the way from his quarters._

_“Nope.” The German loaded the last shell on him into the chamber and fired the last round before he nodded to himself. “Yeah.”_

_“What’d he do this time to get you that angry?” The Hunter lightly prodded the destroyed carnage of a face to make sure the man was temporarily dead._

_“He was talking shit about Iduntis.” Adrich growled before he stepped away from the corpse he’d just created._

_“So he deserved it.” Drifter chuckled. “That’s nothing new.”_

Adrich shook his head, pinching the bridge of his nose. Why did he have to remember that? It was just a funny thought that’d passed through his mind as he let his mind wander but he didn’t have to latch on to that particular memory. Maybe _Jaeger_ was right. Maybe he did need more sleep if he was latching onto seemingly random memories that’d happened decades ago.

He glanced up at the clock on the edge of the glass door and realised he’d been in the shower at least half an hour. It probably was time to get out anyway and face Zavala. The life of a Titan was never an easy one. So duty and honour bound whilst Hunters got to sneak off to forbidden planets and nap wherever they wanted around the Tower. Sometimes he wondered whether he’d made the right choice when he was reborn. Whether he should’ve been a Hunter instead? He definitely acted more like a Hunter than he did a Titan most of the time. Stepping out of the shower, he grabbed a dark grey towel hanging on the rack to his right and quickly dried himself off before wrapping it around his waist to spare _Jaeger_ and anyone else who’d decided to enter his apartment some embarrassment.

True to his words, when he moved into his bedroom to pull on a fresh set of underwear and underclothes, he could hear a distinct Australian voice talking to a slightly robotic German voice. Corey and _Jaeger._ Just great. Not that he minded his Australian brother coming to find him, he just wasn’t in the mood to deal with anyone other than his ass of a Ghost. His muscles were almost screaming out in pain when he pulled the black underwear and clothing on, and again when he sat down to pull a pair of thick socks on.

God it was going to be a long day.

He shook his wet hair out as he somewhat painfully shuffled back through to the living room where his current set of armour was scattered around after having stripped out of each piece by hand. “You know people generally knock before entering.” He looked around the messy apartment until his eyes landed on the muscular Australian standing in the middle of the room, stripped of all armour from the waist up, preferring to stand in just a tank top.

“People don’t generally take forty minute showers.” Corey retorted, turning to face the paler blonde.

“As if you haven’t spent an hour in the shower before.” Adrich made no effort to conceal his eyes rolling.

Corey Abram. Australian Sunbreaker Titan. Tanned, beach blonde and scarred to hell. His blonde hair half tied up leaving the rest down around his neck. The Australian was about five or so years younger than the German but just as tall and a hell of a lot more muscular. He was the embodiment of a typical Sunbreaker; strong, hardheaded, laid back and only did what he wanted when he wanted to. He was dressed in large dark grey armour with accents of metallic golds, reds and oranges in symmetrical patterns with synthoceps turned from green to bright orange. He was Australian as they came and one of the Germans’ closest friends and brothers.

“Whatever.” Corey shook his head. “Zavala won’t wait any longer.”

Adrich reluctantly nodded, “ _Jaeger_ , backup armour. I’m not putting that armour back on before it gets disinfected.” Unless someone told him to move it, he’d happily leave it lying around.

“With regular helmet?”

“Yeah.” He answered before turning back to the Australian. “Did Commander Pain-In-My-Ass say anything about this rescue?”

“Not much.” Corey shook his head. “Just the Fireteam is a new team and they’re pinned down by the House of Rain.”

“First Storms now Rain? I’m sensing a common theme here.” Adrich muttered to mostly himself. “How new we talking?”

“Five of the six Guardians were reborn within the last year.” Corey’s brows furrowed a little. “The six was reborn two years ago.”

“Shit.” The German cursed just as he buckled a little under the sudden weight of his backup armour appearing around his limbs then torso. The armour was tight and heavy but felt like a barrier around his entire body to stop anything trying to kill him. “Four man then.”

“That’s what I was thinking as well.” Corey thought out loud.

“Let’s go.” Adrich motioned to the door. “Somebody seriously owes me a drink after this is done.”

Corey couldn’t help but laugh at just how tired his German brother sounded. “Somebody needs to knock you out after this.”

“Would you?” Adrich grinned meekly back at the Sunbreaker. It really was going to be a long day.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter in such a small amount of time? What is this?? I call it sleep deprivation mixed with Uni mixed with sheer boredom during lectures. Makes for great writing (not...) 
> 
> Anyway, hope you liked it! Lemme know what you think down below!
> 
> Also published on Wattpad if you prefer that site (it has funny gifs and images)
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/177566681-the-first-horseman


	7. Chapter Five

“Commander Zavala.” Adrich greeted the Titan Vanguard nonchalantly, strolling down the short set of steps to the large table in the centre of the Command Centre. “Looking as happy as ever.”

The large Awoken Titan begrudgingly looked up from his spot at the head of the table. “Wolf. Now is not the time for japes at your commanding Vanguard. I called you back two hours ago.” He replied somewhat angrily.

Adrich very visibly rolled his eyes. “I was held up in The Reef after my Raid.” He wasn’t about to let the Awoken know he was busy taking a nap several floors below the Command Centre. “But I’m here now, so what was the extraction?” He was glad he’d told Corey to track down his Fireteam so he didn’t have to put up with the cranky Commander.

“Unfortunately the Fireteam is still pinned down on Mars by the House of Rain.” Zavala chose to ignore the Germans’ indignant tone. “A small house but a threat to the team non the less. Our information was just updated, five out of the six Guardians were reborn this year and the sixth is the only one with any experience. During their last communication, they said three were down, including the older Guardian but the signal was cut off just after. That was twenty minutes ago. We need your team on Mars as soon as possible.”

Adrich nodded slowly, “Do we have anything on who the experienced one is?” If he knew them then there was a better chance he’d get the team out alive.

Zavala shook his head grimly, “We suspect it might be one of the Hunters but we have almost no information on them.”

He sighed a little. “Damn.” Nine out of ten extractions he knew at least one member on the team and it just made the extractions that little bit easier.

“I’ll send you the latest information we have on the team to your ship,” Cayde added. “Try and bring ‘em back alive Wolf. I want my Hunters back.”

“When do I not bring them back alive?” Adrich smirked before he pointed at his commander, “Wait- don’t answer that.”

“Just get in, find them and get out.” Zavala pressed. “Dismissed.”

With a slight nod and a half assed salute, the Titan made a swift exit from the Command Centre, not because he was in any particular rush but he just didn’t want to be around the Titan Vanguard a moment longer than he had to be. The Commander had never once trusted him since he was reborn. Not even when Iduntis spent a decade training him, never once did the Titan congratulate or thank him for anything, always gave him a side glance or a partial glare. He didn’t know what he’d done to the man to make him distrusting of him but he doubted he’d ever get an answer.

Thankfully Corey had found his Fireteam still at the bar watching one of the latest Raids so he didn’t have to waste any more time searching for them. As he headed through the plaza to the North Tower he did wonder which Raid they were watching. He knew there were one or two other Fireteams raiding at the same time as him, but he knew those teams were more private when it came to who saw them in action, so most likely didn’t record their Raids. Maybe it was a live feed of the baby Fireteam trapped on Mars or a Raid from a couple days ago? When he approached the Frames guarding the large door into the food court area, he didn’t even need to show ID, the guards thankfully knew him well enough to recognise him at a glance.

As soon as the doors were opened a wave of smells and sounds flooded into the small courtyard, making everyone around stare at him while he entered the off-limits area. Well it was off-limits to the younger Guardians who didn’t have complete control of their light at least. It would be a pretty bad thing to have a Guardian heavily intoxicated firing off their abilities at the first person who looked at them the wrong way. If he remembered correctly the age limit was at least ten. Not that he spent much time around the bars when he was younger anyway, Iduntis made sure of it to keep him focused and on point. He was glad the doors were closed as soon as he cleared the entrance, allowing the stuffy Warlocks to continue their ‘research’ in peace whilst the Hunters and Titans could have some fun.

He didn’t bother to linger in the top street for a single moment and strode down the alleyway to his left, then down a narrow and steep set of almost hidden stairs. Only a string of lights lit his way down but it soon brightened and widened out onto a large plaza smelling strongly of beer and delicious food.

All sides of the decadently large square were lined with shops and bars selling a wide variety of foods and drinks from around the Sol system, with packed benches and tables in and outside of the shops. Smooth stone paved the edges of the open area, leaving the rest of the ground covered in grass and a couple blazing leaved trees. While it was very late afternoon and still fairly light out, the strings of lights strung from the walls to the trees were already lit, giving the area a very welcoming orangish glow.

It was far too easy to spot his Fireteam since Myth was laying on one of the many tables set up outside a bar surrounded by empty glasses and steins, and the rest of the team. Hephaestus had kicked his feet up and was resting them on Myths’ legs, Ryan was leaning back on his chair chatting with Corey to his right, Amelie was neatly sitting with Natasha Snowden to Hephaestus’ left and Harri was sitting in front of the table, resting his head on Myth’s side while all of them were watching a Raid on one of the screens diagonally bolted to the corners of the walls leading in to the rest of the pub.

From the look of the amount of glasses and steins around, he’d be taking Titans with him for the rescue. Warlocks didn’t sober up easily and Hunters were famously light weights who were very easily side tracked by shiny things. “Corey.” He called out to the Australian Sunbreaker with mild annoyance that he couldn’t join them.

“What mate?” The Australian lazily looked over to the call of his name.

Damnit. Myth or Hephaestus must’ve challenged the Aussie to a drinking contest. He was already partially drunk. “The Fireteam rescue?” He tried to jog his mind.

“Oh, right, yeah.” Corey furrowed his brows in concentration for a moment. “Forgot about that.”

Adrich chuckled a little, “I can tell.” He gestured to the empty steins concentrated around the Sunbreaker. “Alright, ladies I’ve got orders from Zavala for a Fireteam find and rescue on Mars. Ryan, Hephaestus, you two with me, I’ve got lead.” He explained, earning varying degrees of nods from the Titans.

“Now?” Hephaestus begrudgingly stood up.  
“Ja.” Adrich nodded. “It’s a baby team pinned down by the House of Rain on Mars. I’ve already delayed them by two hours so.”

Ryan pushed himself upright a moment later and grabbed the shotgun resting against the side of his chair. “See, this is why I take lead most of the time.” He shook his head, clipping the large gun to his back.

“Hey, I had to deal with Drifter straight after the Raid.” Adrich retorted somewhat angrily.

Ryan rolled his eyes, “Because talking with your dad for twenty minutes was so exhausting.”

Adrich shook his head, “Why do people keep saying that?” He looked to Natasha for help.

The Russian Warlock simply shrugged before subtly pointing to the patched up Titan sulking over a stein whilst watching the Raid.

“What?” Sometimes the Warlock was a little too subtle and inconspicuous with her actions.

“Take him with you.” She almost whispered in German.

He raised a confused eyebrow. “What for?” It was just a baby Fireteam needing extraction. And since Corey was currently half drunk and still drinking, they could manage with three. Never challenge an Australian to a drinking match, they will always say yes and win.

Natasha let out a small sigh and blinked over to the Striker Titan. “Because it’s good for experience, and he’s pretty down about being feeling useless in the Raid.” She’d had to comfort and calm the youngest Titan down once he’d trudged back from the med bay, more sober but more depressed about his inability to be a Titan.

It just confused the Striker Titan even more, “Serious? He helped kill the Archon.” He looked over at the smaller Titan brooding quietly. How could be feel bad after taking out the main target?

“That’s the point.” She pressed. “He’s annoyed because he didn’t kill the Archon. He took a sword to the face because he couldn’t kill it.”

“That was an accident.” He muttered. It was just a Fireteam extraction, he supposed there wasn’t much that could kill him. “Fine.” He nodded.

“Spaciba.” Natasha flashed him a smile before she blinked back to her spot and sat back down.

A small smile made its way onto his lips in response, “Harri, you too. Let’s go.” He gestured for the young Titan to come over to the trio of far too old Titans.

Harri’s eyes went wide, making him turn to face his older brothers with a look of shock and confusion. “Why would you want me?” He grasped his stein tightly.

“Because it’s a four man job and last time I checked you’re part of the team.” Adrich explained with another motion for him to go with them. He tried to not look at the large gauze pad covering the right half of his forehead.

“Oh, right.” Harri grinned sheepishly and almost slammed his stein down before he skidded around the table to join the three of them.

Adrich nodded to the four-man Fireteam, “Let’s go.” He ruffled Harri’s short hair as he walked past the young Titan and towards the exit of the small plaza, taking lead for what should’ve been a very easy and routine extraction.

 

* * *

 

The Hangar was abuzz with Frames and shipwrights working on various ships in different states of disrepair when the four Titans entered. They would’ve transmatted from the main plaza but Adrich and Ryan weren’t sure if their ships were fit to fly yet. Adrichs’ just smelt foul whilst Ryan had noticed the engine surging unnecessarily on the low approach to the Tower.

The four man team named ‘Titan Rescue For Hire’ were greeted by Amanda who was covered in sweat and grime but had a smile on her face all the same. “Hey guys, just got your clearance from Zavala.” She greeted happily.

“Why he thinks we need clearance just to take off from the Tower is beyond me.” Ryan rolled his eyes in return. “Ships fit to fly?”

“Wolf’s is.” Amanda nodded, “Yours is gonna take a while. We’re still not sure what’s causing the surges.”

“Damn.” Ryan let out a small breath.

“Yeah.” Amanda offered him a sympathetic smile, “But if it’s any consolation, I brought your backup ship up. We gave her a once over and she’s fit to fly.” She gestured to the long, sleek, red and gold ship sitting on one of the two taken up pads that lowered ships into storage.

Ryan nodded in appreciation, “Gott I haven’t flown that ship in ages.” The jumpship was practically ancient in comparison to his usual ship and was not easy to fly at all.

“So,” Adrich diverged the conversation back on track. “You get the stench out?”

“Yeah, but what did you kill in there? We nearly had to wash it out with acid.” The Shipwright had gagged constantly and nearly threw up several times during the cleaning process, the stench was that bad.

Adrich cooly ran a hand through his pushed back hair, “A decapitated Archon head.” He shrugged, “Did you leave the sword in there?”

“The sword covered in blood?” The Shipwright chose not to comment further on the foul stench that’d come from the Archon head. “One of the frames wiped it down but it’s still where you left it.”

“Sweet.” Adrich gave a thumbs up before he jogged over to his jumpship. “I probably owe you one!”

“Yeah you do!” Amanda shouted after the reckless Titan, watching the older Sunbreaker follow suit a moment later.

Hephaestus shook his head and gave Harri a small nudge to start walking over to the ships. “Thanks Holliday.” The hulking Exo sent a short nod to the Shipwright.

“No problem.” Amanda almost muttered, watching the reckless Titans head off to their ships.

Soon enough the four Guardians were in their ship and heading for Mars in a thin V formation. He let Jaeger take over control so he could read through the small bit of information Cayde had managed to decipher. It was mostly last known beacon locations and a tiny bit of information on the team, which included no names or anything useful, just the classes of the six Guardians. Three Hunters, two Titans and a Warlock. It was technically a good setup but if five of the six had barely any idea about what they were doing, it was just set up to fail.

“So what we looking at Adrich?” Ryan spoke up.

Adrich shook his head even though no one would see it, “We’re basically going in blind. All I could tell was that there’s three Hunters, two Titans and a Warlock to find and they’re around the Terra region. Cayde put a marker up on the map where their last beacon transmitted from but that’s it. No one knows anything else.”

Hephaestus let out a frustrated breath, “It’s going to be one of those extractions.” The three of them could just about visualise the Exo holding the bridge of what was supposedly his nose.

“What’s he talking about?” Harri looked between the ships he was behind for some sort of answer.

Adrich suppressed a tired and annoyed grunt. “Ryan.” He just couldn’t be bothered to explain in that moment.

“You know how the three of us occasionally carry out extractions for Zavala?” Ryan started, earning a ‘yes’. “Well whilst we are busy, we aren’t given a lot of extractions because most of them are easy and are given to weaker teams. We’re the ones that get the hard extractions because we can handle it. And while usually we get given decent amount of information which helps us get the job done in a matter of a couple hours, there have been several times where we’ve gone in blind and the extractions have taken up to several days. This is one of those times.”

“Yeesh.” Harri’s eyes widened a little bit. “How long do you think we’ll be down there?”

Ryan shook his head. “Could be anything from a couple hours to a couple days. We’re going in blind, we will have no information to help us, no path to follow, nothing. We’re jumping in at the deep end.”

Hephaestus nodded in agreement, “We’ll be lucky if it’s anything less than a day.” He could already tell it was going to take a couple days at least.

For once the youngest Titan couldn’t think of a response. His mind had just gone blank at the prospect of being pinned down for days in the depths of Mars, constantly fighting their way through hoards of Fallen to get to a Fireteam who could be dead.

“Harri.” Adrich snapped the small German out of his blankness. “Just so you know, this is going to be dangerous and deadly. We’re given these tasks because the Vanguard are scared that if they send anyone else they’ll be killed permanently. We’ve done this so many times it’s almost cathartic but there’s always the chance that one of us won’t reach the fireteam in need of rescue or won’t make it back out. We’ve lost people, good Guardians, during extractions because one of us slipped up or we didn’t account for every single possibility and eventuality.

“You have to always be looking over your shoulder, staying focused and listening or looking out for anything that doesn’t sound or look right. And bear in mind the longer we’re down there the lower the chance of that Fireteam getting out alive is. We have to get there as soon as we can but also remembering to keep ourselves alive as well because there is no one else willing to come and step in if we get pinned down as well. It’s just us out there.” He explained as calmly as he could yet it still sounded so grim. Though it was the truth. If they slipped up everyone died. It was as simple as that.

“We know you can do it.” Ryan quickly added. “It’s going to be hard but you’ll be able to get through it. We’ll make sure of it.”

“Thanks . . .” Harri mumbled. Was there really no one to save them if they failed?

“Just don’t think too much into it.” Hephaestus chimed in. “We don’t.”

As they approached the Red Planet, the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach that Adrich had been ignoring was building up and up to the point where he was actually nervous to land. He had no clue what they were going up against, who they were rescuing, how powerful the House of Rain was, or how hard it was going to be. If it were just Hephaestus, Ryan and himself he wouldn’t even be thinking about the extraction until they landed. All of them were old enough and experienced enough to not be surprised by anything they could encounter which helped them stay focused and aware of their surroundings but Harri. . . he was so young in comparison and still had that wonderment and fear when it came to seeing something new. What the sinking feeling was exactly he didn’t know but he had a good idea it was to do with Harri.

“Where we landing?” Ryan asked for the second time.

“What?” Adrich snapped his head up, “Tharsis Rise. The Fireteam’s beacon was picked up in several locations, one was even in Valles Marineris, but Cayde managed to find a couple of instances where the beacon was active in Tharsis Rise so he suggested starting there.”

Ryan nodded slowly, “Start at Tharsis Rise and work our way down to Valles Marineris.” He affirmed more to himself than anything.

“Ja.”

Harri pulled up the map of the Western Hemisphere but found no landing zones. “Wait, how are we going to land?” He refreshed the map again and again but there was nothing.

The three older Titans smirked simultaneously. Hephaestus spoke up for the three of them, “The old way.” He hadn’t done one of the old landings in at least a year. “We’re gonna drop into the lower atmosphere and jump down to one of the volcanoes while our ships return to orbit.”

Adrich flipped a few switches and pressed a button to the left of him as they entered the upper atmosphere of Mars. He smirked a little at the memories of all the times he’d done what 20th century Astronauts called a ‘halo jump’. “It’s easy. Just remember to catch yourself before you hit the ground. It’s a pretty painful revive if you don’t.” All the times he’d failed to catch himself, it’d taken so many attempts before he got it right and didn’t end up smashing on the ground.

The youngest Titans’ nervousness only worsened as the four of them made their way down to their hulls. “What do you mean by ‘catching yourself’?” He opened the hull ramp only to be knocked back a couple feet from the gale force winds battering into him.

Hephaestus chuckled lowly, “You’ll know when you get to it.” The Exo stretched his heavily armoured arms though he didn’t really need to.

“Helpful.” Harri muttered just as he hit the release for the ramp to lower. He had to brace himself from the force of the wind suddenly battering into him, making him immediately regret not arguing to find another way to land.

“Trust me,” Adrich made sure his Helm of Inmost Light was secure while the ramp opened, his back facing the sky. “You’re gonna love it!” He grinned.

“On three!” Ryan shouted over the roar of the wind once all ramps were lowered.

“One!”

“Two!”

“Three!”

And then they fell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took so long, had it nearly finished for a while but didn't have the time to get round to finishing it ^^' 
> 
> But hey it's up! Woooo
> 
> Also published on Wattpad if you prefer that site (it has funny gifs and images)
> 
> https://www.wattpad.com/myworks/177566681-the-first-horseman


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